New pathways

I’m really excited about the two pathways that are going through the butterfly garden.

The brick pathway is through the first portion of the garden, which is complete. My daughter painted them years ago, but the paint has since come off, or fading a ton. I may have to scrub them clean, so she can create new designs on them again.

The stone pathway I began today to go through the second portion of the garden.

This pathway, although is very time consuming, I’m loving how it is turning out. My husband brought bricks home years ago and I never knew quite what to do with them. I started getting rid of them, a little every week, until an idea sprung.

I am now using a sledge hammer and breaking them to create another artsy pathway. It’s a huge jigsaw puzzle putting all the broken pieces together.

The best part of today, of course was watching the variety of butterflies that visited the garden while I was out there. We had monarchs, gulf fritillaries, orange barred sulphurs, great southern whites, dainty sulphurs, Cassius blue, polydamas swallowtail and one I got extremely excited about, the giant swallowtail. I sure have created an oasis!

This video shows a polydamas swallowtail, orange barred sulphur and gulf fritillary.

Monarch galore

More monarch butterflies have emerged and released. Thirty-two monarch butterflies have been released since Saturday, April 5. The wonderful news –  there are still more chrysalsis in the butterfly house. Our total has now reached 628 monarch butterflies released over the past few years.

Fly free

Welcome to a section of my garden where I released six monarch butterflies in the middle of a sea of blanket flowers. 

Having a good March/April

The monarch butterflies are having a great March and April. There has been a lot of activity in the garden – eggs being laid, caterpillars chomping away.

Here’s the first, of a few monarch butterflies to emerge in the butterfly house.